A reset for rejection sensitive dysphoria

The Reset is a free, no-signup tool for a stuck or spiralling ADHD moment. You pick the closest of six moments, or type what's going on in your own words, and it walks you through naming the feeling, getting a little distance from the thought behind it, finding one small step, optional quiet company while you do it, and a no-judgment check back afterward. The whole thing takes a few minutes, and nothing you type leaves your device.

The six moments it's built for

Instead of a blank box, you start by tapping the moment closest to what's happening, in plain words, not a clinical label:

• Someone hurt me / I feel rejected
• I can't start
• I messed up
• Too much at once
• I need to say something hard
• My brain won't stop

You can also type what's going on in your own words. That text is matched to the closest moment entirely on your device; if nothing matches well, it asks you to pick the closest chip instead of silently guessing.

What happens, step by step

1. 1

   Name it

   Tap up to three feeling words from a short list built around the moment you picked, and see one plain line that names what's likely going on. An optional one-minute paced-breathing pause sits right here if your body needs a minute before your thinking does.

2. 2

   Unhook

   A short way to get distance from the thought behind the feeling, shaped to the moment: naming the loudest automatic thought and checking whether you actually know it or are guessing, separating the plain fact from the story your brain added to it, or a short, specific reason the reaction makes sense. Each one ends with a line you can carry with you, and a plain note on why it helps, with a real source.

3. 3

   One small step

   A concrete first move built for that exact moment: a short draft you can edit and send whenever you decide, a task broken down into three sizes of small, a brain dump sorted into now, later and let go, or a place to park a racing thought before winding down. You choose if and when anything leaves this page; nothing is sent automatically.

4. 4

   Stay with me (optional)

   Choose five, ten or twenty five minutes of quiet company while you do the step. It's a soft time check, not a countdown, you can pause it, and "I did it" ends it early the moment you're done.

5. 5

   Check back

   "Did it happen?" Yes or not yet, no judgment attached to either answer. "Not yet" offers an even smaller version of the same step, not a reason to feel worse.

6. 6

   Your reset

   A short summary of what you named, the line that helped, your step, and whether it happened. You can copy it to your own clipboard; nothing is kept on our end. From here, there's a plain invitation to join early access for a version that remembers patterns over time, not a paywall.

A concrete example: the rejection moment

Say a reply hasn't come and your stomach drops. After naming the feeling, the Reset reflects back the thought it thinks is loudest right now, something like "they're angry with me", and asks whether you actually know that or are guessing. If you're guessing, it puts the one plain fact you do know (a reply hasn't come yet) right next to that guess, so your brain is holding two possible stories instead of only the worst one. The small step after that is a real choice: draft a calm reply you can send later, decide to wait until tomorrow, or do one kind thing for yourself right now instead of either.

Why naming it first is the actual mechanism

Putting a feeling into words is not just a framing choice. In brain-imaging research, labeling a negative emotion in words measurably lowers activity in the amygdala, the brain's threat-response center, compared with reacting to the same thing without naming it^[1]. The same logic sits behind the unhook step: holding a harsh thought as a thought you're noticing, rather than a fact you're inside of, has been shown to make that thought feel less believable and less distressing^[2]. And the small step at the end leans on a well-studied finding that deciding exactly what you'll do, and when, makes it more likely you'll actually do it^[3].

What it will never do

• It never asks for an account, an email, or a payment. Every reset, today and in the future, stays free.
• Nothing you type is saved, logged, or sent anywhere. Free text is matched on your own device and then gone.
• It doesn't tell you whether you have rejection sensitive dysphoria or anything else. It's a tool for a moment, not a measurement of you.
• If what you type contains clear language about suicide or self-harm, submitting it opens help right over the step you're on. What you'd already written stays there underneath, so nothing is lost, and you can pick it back up afterward if you want to. See crisis resources any time, no need to use the tool first.